Leave the car at home and hop the bus — and help people in need to boot. In honor of National Dump the Pump Day, anyone who donates a nonperishable food item when boarding a LakeXpress bus today will ride free. Food will be donated to the Salvation Army and Lake Cares Food Pantry in Mount Dora. The goal of the national effort is raise awareness about the benefits of transit. Meanwhile, the county recently kicked off a program to install 27 bus shelters with one outside the round courthouse in Tavares (left)

THE WAY The Osceola Sentinel describes the riders of the Lynx bus system is geared toward those who have no alternative transportation.This may be the case for now, but if others discover how convenient this service is, they will be riding the bus instead of driving.My daughters and I ride the bus to the Florida Mall to shop. I have taken the bus to Valencia Community College's west campus on occasion. You can get there faster by driving, but you cannot read or study while driving the car.The nicest thing about riding the bus is that I can talk to my daughters in a relaxed fashion, and I don't have to be concerned about traffic, which makes the trip more enjoyable for my family.

The high price of gas has hit 20-year-old Shaina Brown where it hurts most: her social life. "This is supposed to be the time of our lives," said Brown, a Valencia Community College sophomore who recently ventured to a nightclub for the first time in six months. "I hope this is not the tip of the iceberg, that we are going to end up like the Great Depression you read about in history books." If there is a silver lining to soaring gas prices, it is that young adults such as Brown are studying more and clubbing less.

IF LYNX is such a success, why is Kissimmee and Osceola County considering cutting off services as of October? I work at the Orlando International Airport, driving the rental cars. I only work two or three days a week, but I use the bus whenever possible rather than riding my bike or having to get a ride from someone.Taking away bus services is unfair. I enjoy riding the bus, and I am thankful there is one.Taking the bus service away means that I and others will not have a job or we'll have to find other jobs closer to town, which is not always possible.

The first person to ride Lake County's mass transit bus system, Dorothy Baldwin, will be recognized at the County Commission meeting Aug. 20. She will receive a free bus pass.Baldwin, 61, became the first passenger on the county's first mass transportation system July 22. The cost of riding the bus, linking most of central Lake County, is $1 for adults and 50 cents for children younger than 12. Passengers can transfer from the Lady Lake-Leesburg bus to the Golden Triangle bus for free.Baldwin was taking the bus from the Windemere Villas in Leesburg to a chiropractor's appointment.

AS A relatively new (18 months) citizen of this community, I must take a few minutes and use this forum for some well-deserved praise that needs to be passed out. A mentor once told me that we must praise in public and criticize in private; that maxim has served me well in my personal and business life.The Lynx bus system is an incredible one. A beautiful experience in planning gone right. The buses are clean, well lit, and easy to board. Their messages run from the serious to the frivolous, providing thought and laughter.

I READ with interest your article on the shortage of school-bus drivers. I was in town on vacation from my job as a school-bus driver.I wasn't surprised to learn that follow-through on discipline was a major problem. I would like to ask those in charge of your school system some questions:Do you care if children have a safe and pleasant ride to and from school?Do you care enough to give good people incentive for working for you in the form of benefits, pay that offsets the hassles and awesome responsibility and a fair system for the assignment of field trips?

With our citizens getting older and finding it harder to drive and gas still at or near $2.50 a gallon, there is a real need for public bus transportation. A lot of Paisley residents, however, have said that almost no one is riding the bus. We have had the county change schedules to suit riders. The latest was to add a two-hour layover at the Wal-Mart in DeLand and a new route west to the Wal-Mart in Mount Dora, also with a two-hour layover. The county has done its part, but now it is up to Paisley residents.

I read the letter to the editor in Tuesday's Orlando Sentinel complaining about the lack of shelters for those awaiting a bus. The reader expressed concern for protection from the Florida sun and/or the rain. This brought me back to riding the bus as my only means of transportation as a young man in the 1960s in even more hot and humid Houston, Texas. In those days, there were even fewer shelters. The ones that did exist were located near major pick-up and drop-off sections in the downtown areas.

Buses are part of the answer to Central Florida's traffic problems, but there has to be an incentive and improvement in the bus service before more people would be willing to leave their vehicles at home and jump on a bus. Though I am not "voluntarily" riding the bus (for one year now), I do appreciate the convenience of riding it seven days a week. But it is very frustrating when I am trying to get to work and my supervisor does not want any excuses about why I am late for work. So, I arrive at work one hour early just to keep my job. Since Lynx has the monopoly on bus service, there is no competition for it to improve service -- and forget about customer service.

If Lake County officials really want a bus system that will attract "seniors, young people and people going to work who don't have a car," as the general manager of MV Transportation said it would, they are going about it all wrong. The problem is that Lakexpress, which begins early next year, is not linked with Lynx, the transportation agency that serves Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties. Lynx is launching an express route from south Lake to Orlando next month, but that's a separate venture.

With our citizens getting older and finding it harder to drive and gas still at or near $2.50 a gallon, there is a real need for public bus transportation. A lot of Paisley residents, however, have said that almost no one is riding the bus. We have had the county change schedules to suit riders. The latest was to add a two-hour layover at the Wal-Mart in DeLand and a new route west to the Wal-Mart in Mount Dora, also with a two-hour layover. The county has done its part, but now it is up to Paisley residents.

I read the letter to the editor in Tuesday's Orlando Sentinel complaining about the lack of shelters for those awaiting a bus. The reader expressed concern for protection from the Florida sun and/or the rain. This brought me back to riding the bus as my only means of transportation as a young man in the 1960s in even more hot and humid Houston, Texas. In those days, there were even fewer shelters. The ones that did exist were located near major pick-up and drop-off sections in the downtown areas.

When the boycott-the-FCAT bus rolls into town, you must decide to get on or stay off. If you believe that one size fits all, that all humans are the same, stay off. If you believe differently, get on. Whether you get on or stay off depends on your perceptions of and about standards. There are equally compelling arguments concerning standards. The current idolization of them arose when a blue-ribbon panel determined our nation was at risk due to a failing educational system. This group asserted that America would lose its competitive edge in the world economy.

I have been a bus passenger in Orange County since 1978. I have seen many improvements, but Lynx still has a long way to go. I noticed that one of the biggest complaints in the article by Jim Stratton on Thursday was that Lynx is disappointed in ridership. Ridership will not increase until Lynx offers better service. When I first started riding the bus, I hardly ever had to wait beyond the time the bus was supposed to be at that particular stop. Now it is another story. Lynx is not dependable.

Buses are part of the answer to Central Florida's traffic problems, but there has to be an incentive and improvement in the bus service before more people would be willing to leave their vehicles at home and jump on a bus. Though I am not "voluntarily" riding the bus (for one year now), I do appreciate the convenience of riding it seven days a week. But it is very frustrating when I am trying to get to work and my supervisor does not want any excuses about why I am late for work. So, I arrive at work one hour early just to keep my job. Since Lynx has the monopoly on bus service, there is no competition for it to improve service -- and forget about customer service.

Amazing! An immigrant from the hills of Tennessee displays more common sense than all the bubble-headed education professors in the United States. Jake Vest, Orlando Sentinel columnist, is right on time. The reason I know is that I hold three degrees from the University of Florida College of Education and have spent more than 25 years working in schools and colleges in this country. A significant minority of children in public schools are sullen, resentful and hostile. They literally defy teachers to teach them anything, and they interfere with the education of the others who want to be there.

Daylight-saving time will shift an hour of daylight from morning to evening Sunday, putting many Central Florida students in the dark as they go to school next week. Sunday also is the five-year anniversary of the school bus-stop accident that killed Ticey Rawls, a Groveland teenager hit by a car while running in the dark to catch her bus. Rawls' death came two years after Jonathan Eubanks, a Leesburg teen, was killed while waiting for his bus. The carnage peaked in 1999 when more than a dozen Central Florida children were hit or killed walking or bicycling to school.